In 2006, various writers began exposing a little secret that African-American men had keeping: sexual tourism in Brazil. Millions of black American men had been “introduced” to Brazilian women through the music videos of rappers like Snoop Dogg and Ja Rule. Rapper TI mentioned Brazilian women in the lyrics of his song, “Let’s Get Away”. In 2003, Hip Hop producer Pharrell Williams released a documentary about his search for the sexiest Brazilian model in Rio de Janeiro. Adult film production companies were recording many of their films in various cities throughout Brazil, particularly in Rio de Janeiro. Professors like William Jelani Cobb of Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, and Tracy Denean Sharpley-Whiting of Vanderbilt University focused part of their work on the phenomenon of African-American men and sexual tourism in Brazil. And in 2008, social worker Jewel Woods and journalist Karen Hunter, released the most complete analysis of the new trend in their book, Don’t Blame It On Rio: The Real Deal Behind Why Men Go to Brazil for Sex.

Online forums and comment sections on websites and blogs were filled with thousands of comments by African-Americans, men and women, who were eager to share their opinions on the subject. African-American women were disgusted. Many African-American men expressed their desire to go to Brazil and experience an apparent sexual paradise for black men. The question of why so many African-American men were going to Brazil for sexual escapades was asked on hundreds on websites and blogs.

According to the work of Cobb, Sharpley-Whiting, Woods and Hunter, there were several reasons for the sudden fascination with Brazil. Some reasons include: the “pornification” of hip hop, the obesity rates of African-American women, the confrontational attitudes of African-American women, and the abundance of mixed race women, with long, curly hair and curvaceous bodies. In Brazil, women appear to be the exact opposite. There are far fewer obese Brazilian women than in America. The Brazilian women that these men meet are beautiful, non- confrontational and offer affection and memorable sexual experiences (for a price) that these men don’t think they receive in America. And with the value of the American dollar normally worth two to three Brazilian reais, these men spend much less in Brazil in comparison to what they would pay for similar “services” in America.

Besides the apparent conflict at the root of many relationships between African-American men and women, another aspect of this of this fascination with Brazilian women, is the self-hatred that has been a part of the African-American experience since the slavery era. As is true of Afro-Brazilians and other blacks in the African Diaspora, African-Americans have been psychologically trained to hate blackness. On the surface, African-Americans claim to be “black and proud”, but in reality, we, as a group, have never been able to heal from the wounds of self-hatred. African-American men have consistently proven that they prefer women of lighter skin, long (less nappy) hair and less prominently African facial features. In regards to Brazil, let me say, there are millions of Afro-Brazilian women that have the same physical appearances as African-American women. If many of these women appeared on the streets of any black community in America, no one would know that they were Afro-Brazilian until they spoke.

Afro-Brazilian women

Mulheres afro-brasileiras

Afro-Brazilian women

Mulheres afro-brasileira

Vanessa Williams, Halle Berry

But it is not average African-American woman that these men are pursuing. The African-American man in Brazil is searching for the mulata and mestiça type that they see in popular hip hop music videos. In American terms, they are searching for the Beyonce, Ciara, Jennifer Lopez, Alicia Keys type of women, and in Brazil, this physical type is plentiful. Although there are millions of Brazilian women that are clearly black, there are also millions that are indefinable racially. I’m not speaking of women like Halle Berry, or even Vanessa Williams, women who have light or tanned skin yet still prominent African features, I’m speaking of the Gloria Velez type that is not black enough or white enough to be labeled as one or the other. Brazilian model Viviane Araújo is a good example of this type of woman. What does this say about black pride?